Thursday, November 29, 2007

There has been some debate on this blog and elsewhere about the role of National in the campaign against the Electoral Finance Bill.

The Gnats have been accused of lacking leadership and John Boy has been singled out for criticism.

I admit to giving him some stick too.

But maybe, for now, National are playing it right. By keeping some distance they are showing that "Kill The Bill" is not some National-Act front organisation, but something more apolitical and cross-party, even if some of its leading lights are on the right.

Now, Dear Leader likes cuddling up to old soldiers, especially for media photo ops, even as she strips our armed forces and abolishes our air force.

I'm sure she won't be happy with the opposition from this war vet, whose story is detailed here and here, which shows how widespread support for the Kill The Bill campaign really is.

Thus, National could well be right in holding their fire for now. There is still time for them to get active when parliament resumes once more, or maybe over the holidays when the media will be starved of news, especially if Liarbour has passed the bill.

Thus, John Boy can quite happily go tootling around the South Island meeting the people, though as well as showing what an all-round nice guy he is, John Boy you might want to throw in a bit of politics. Try and get the message across on the EFB and others issues.

4 comments:

Dave Mann
said...

There is no "Key Campaign"

John Key is a perfect 'leader' for the National Party in that he encapsulates everything that this party stands for, which is basically nothing.

This electoral term will go down in history as the final, tragic, nail in the coffin of the National Party, when a leader of principle and vision was shunted aside in favour of a cabal comprising a failed past leader and a slimy opportunist who has no political philosophy and no clue about where the country should be headed.

I would not be surprised at all if National makes a poorer showing at this next election than it did at the last one. The electorate surely will not vote for a party led by a man who is such a blatant opportunist? Even the New Zealand public, desperate as they are for sanity and leadership, wouldn't fall for this bunch of no-hopers.

If the National Party goes on the way they are now, Labour will lose a lot of support to the Greens and the Maoris as a protest next year and they will have to govern by formal coalition, while the Nats will be absolutely decimated. Finished.

Its so infuriating. We will be watching Klark fiddling with her cellphone at the next CHOGM conference too.

Dave, what have you been drinking? Your 'leader of principle and vision' was shown to be political flawed.

If the Gnats go on the way they are now, they will govern in their own right. Of course what I mean by 'going on as they are' is something different from (not 'to')what you mean. They are carefully restricting Labour's ability to score hits while quietly kicking out, brick by brick, Labour's already shaky foundation of voter support.

Your comments would have some relevance if we were just a few months ahead of an election but we are not.

Adolf, at this stage in the election cycle, there's no way you can project today's opinion poll results into a National win because by the time of the election all parties will have been campaigning hell-for-leather and the minor parties will come back into the running (more's the pity).

I applaud your writing skills with "They are carefully restricting Labour's ability to score hits while quietly kicking out, brick by brick, Labour's already shaky foundation of voter support." That was a great piece of prose and it reads well... however it is simply not what is happening. National is just keeping its head down and not saying anything much because it has nothing to offer in any policy area.

I doubt if anyone in National would have the energy to kick a brick out of anything, much less know where to aim.

Dave I suggest National is wisely keeping it's head down for the moment in order to ensure the media keeps its focus on Labour's misdemeanors.

Why distract the public from Taito Philip Field, the EFB, the texting Queen, the law of common sense, the Mallard skulduggery and all the rest of the juicy salacious news Labour so ably produce without any help from anyone else?